Western Pennsylvanian Railroads

Pittsburgh & Ohio Central Railroad

Updated 2005-02-23

This is an unofficial Pittsburgh & Ohio Central Railroad railfan
page and
has no affiliation with either Pittsburgh & Ohio Central Railroad,
the Ohio Central Railroad, the Pittsburgh
Industrial Railroad, RailAmerica or RailTex. The official homepage of
the Ohio Central Railroad, owner of
the Pittsburgh and Ohio Central, can be found
here

The
Pittsburgh & Ohio Central Railroad (POC) operates 42 miles of
former Pittsburgh,
Chartiers & Youghiogheny and Pennsylvania RailRoad trackage
west/southwest
of Pittsburgh. The POC is owned by the Ohio Central Railroad. While I
lived in Pittsburgh, from mid 1999 to mid 2000, the POC was the
Pittsburgh Industrial Railroad and was owned by RailAmerica. The PIR
became the POC in 2001.

The POC interchanges with the NS at Duff Jct, with the CSX on
Neville Island
and with the PAM (Pittsburgh, Allegheny & McKees Rocks) at McKees
Rocks.

Over the years that I've seen the POC/PIR, the operations have
remained the same. Two jobs start the day around 07:30 at the McKees
Rocks office. Both jobs head from McKees Rocks
to Duff Jct where they interchange
cars with the NS local. Both jobs then sort the cars at the
junction and/or
at Scully Yard. One job heads back through McKes Rocks and up to
Neville Island to work
there. The other job (the Arden/Carnegie Turn) runs south to either
work the branch to
Arden
(Monday , Wednesday and Friday) or work the short branch at Carnegie
(Tuesday
and Thursday). The Ohio Central Railroad is kind enough to
railfans to post
their regular trains on their website.

My PIR photos were mostly shot in the early summer of 2000, POC
photos in late summer 2001 and the fall of 2003. Together they cover
the POC fairly well. Below the photos are presented in geographical
order.

McKees Rocks

Back in the PIR-days, power used to be two SW's, numbers 2340
and 2342. They usually
sat at the McKees Rocks yard when not operating, as POC power does
today. May 1999.

Neville Island

The POC usually runs two daily jobs. One to Neville Island,
an industrial
area, and the other on either the branch to Carnegie or to Arden (close
to Washington PA). Here, back in the early summer of 2000, a PIR train
is on its way to Neville Island. The access
to the island is a bridge shared with CSX, and here at Neville
interlocking the POC joins CSX tracks to the island. The double track
CSX (ex.
P&LE) main line is in the foreground. The rightmost track is the
entry
to the former P&LE McKees Rocks Yard, now mostly gone. Photo shot
from
the Neville Ave bridge.

Jumping ahead to the POC era, October 14th 2003 to be
precise, the POC 1327 heads north on Neville Island with a single car
in tow.

On the north end of Neville Island is a little yard. As can
be seen, the POC tracks are easily photographed from Neville Road.

Same day and location.

And a little more from the cute little yard.

Finally the crew backs across Neville Road, parks the train
inside a fence and ties it down for the day.

Back in time again, to the PIR days. 2340 is switching
the north end of Neville Island. April 2000.

And finally switching a scrap yard on Neville Island. The
scrap yard has a little
industrial switcher for its internal use. April 2000.

The Arden Turn

The other daily job runs south. This and the next pictures
follows
the train south towards Arden. It's no problem to keep up with the
train
- it runs very slowly. Photo from Carnegie, Bell St. June 2000.

On the way to Canonsburg (Hahn St.). June 2000.

Canonsburg. The train has just backed a car across the bridge
in the
background and is now ready to proceed. June 2000.

Canonsburg has another customer and some covered hoppers are
switched.
June 2000.

The line passes the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Arden.
June 2000.

End of the line - literally! The line ends here at Arden and
the train
is about to reverse into an industry. June 2000.

Same location, but the following year it's become the POC.
September 26, 2001, the POC 4032 is switching the cardboard company at
Arden.

Shortly before the 4032 rolls
past the Trolley Museum.

Crossing N. Main St. on its
way to the cardboard plant.

The 4032 ends by switching
the plastic plant in Arden. I had hoped to follow the train back
towards Pittsburgh, but the train waited while the cars were unloaded,
and eventually I had to move on.

2342's New Home

Kaye Hartman of Lancaster OH sent me this photo of the ex.
PIR 2342 working at its new home at the Anchor Hocking Glass plant in
Lancaster OH. Kaye wrote: "It was busy with the movement of
hopper cars of sand, soda, and lime for the manufacture of glass. The
engineer and brakeman operated the train smoothly. We want this
equipment around for a long time. It was a nice experience, watching
and taking pictures."